Zack Littell shrugged of any concern about his proclivity for allowing dingers and fired an absolute gem in his Cincinnati Reds debut earlier in the week. Across 7.0 IP, he yielded just a lone earned run (on a dinger), limiting the otherwise potent Chicago Cubs offense to just 3 H and 2 BB against 8 K.
Acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays at the deadline in a massive three-team deal, Littell was brought in originally to simply round out the Reds rotation. Ace Hunter Greene would be back soon, of course, and lefties Nick Lodolo and Andrew Abbott were pitching like aces in their own right. Brady Singer wasn’t going anywhere, though rookie Chase Burns would eventually need to have his innings capped if he could ever do anything other than strike out 10 guys a night.
Greene, though, isn’t back yet. Lodolo, meanwhile, is on the IL with a blister issue that set him back in serious fashion last year. Nick Martinez, who moved to the bullpen when Littel was acquired, has already been shuttled back to the rotation. In Littell, what once looked like a luxury good at a place on Cincinnati’s roster where there wasn’t a huge need, now looks like a vital cog in the biggest strength of the team.
He’ll lead the charge for the Reds on Sunday in their series finale against the Pittsburgh Pirates. As ‘must win’ games go, this one pretty thoroughly qualifies for Littell and the Reds, seeing as they dropped each of the first two games of the series against the last-place Pirates while desperately trying to hang in the National League Wild Card chase.
For the record, the Reds enter play on Sunday 2.5 games back of the New York Mets in the race for the final playoff spot. Thankfully, the Mets have been collapsing of late while the Reds fumbled their early games with Pittsburgh – New York has lost 6 in a row and 10 of their last 11.
First pitch Sunday is slated for 1:35 PM ET, and the game will be on both FanDuel Sports Network and MLB Network.
Lineup’s below. Go Reds!